Lumberton volleyball defeats Ozen in three sets

Published 9:39 am, Thursday, October 17, 2013

The head volleyball coach at Lumberton just saw her Lady Raiders defeat District 20-4A opponent Ozen three sets to none (25-4, 25-19, 25-5). Yet before the team dispersed to see family and friends, O'Quinn made them do squat jumps, pushups and run suicides.

"They don't always do that after the (match)," said O'Quinn, who is also a track and field coach.

O'Quinn called it a "cool down", but it was a small bit of punishment for what she felt was a mediocre second set. Lumberton (28-7, 10-0 District 20-4A) dominated the first and third sets against Ozen but took awhile to get going in the middle.

In the second set, Ozen would lead early in the set before Lumberton regained momentum. But the Lady Panthers would never fully go away, getting as close as 13-12 and 22-18 before the Lady Raiders took control and ended the second game on a 3-1 run.

"They were getting up and hitting the ball," O'Quinn said about Ozen. "And they were digging a lot. They were returning the ball quite a bit. I told (my team) they better get their act together.

Lumberton is currently ranked No. 18 in Class 4A by the Texas Girls Coaches Association Volleyball Poll, has won 18 matches in a row and has only lost two games in during those 18 matches. But O'Quinn is still looking for the consistency that seemed to get away from the Lady Raiders in the second set on Tuesday evening.

"We need to keep moving forward," O'Quinn said. "We got to make sure we play game by game, we can't look past that. Everybody keeps asking what do we think about the playoffs, it has to be game by game. I try to tell them you have to be consistent every game no matter who you're playing."

Lumberton's next game will be at Livingston this Friday, while Ozen will travel to take on Little Cypress-Mauriceville.